Did the early Church baptize infants?

Tertullian c. 155–c. 220 ADOn Baptism 18.4–5

So, given each person's condition, temperament and age, it is better to put off baptism, and above all for little children. Why must the sponsors too be put at risk, when there is no real need? They may die and fail to keep their promises, or be let down when a bad character grows up. The Lord does say, "Do not forbid them to come to me" (Matthew 19:14). Then let them come while they are growing up, while they are learning, while they are taught where they are coming. Let them become Christians when they are able to know Christ. Why should the age of innocence hurry to the forgiveness of sins?

The first writer to name infant baptism. His advice to wait assumes that infants were already being baptized, with sponsors making the promises for them. He also tells the unmarried to wait. He gives advice; he does not forbid the practice. "When there is no real need" may mean except in danger of death.

Origen of Alexandria c. 185–c. 254 ADHomilies on Luke 14.5

Infants are baptized for the forgiveness of sins. Which sins? When did they sin? How can there be any reason for washing infants, unless in the sense we spoke of a little earlier: "No one is clean from stain, not even if his life on earth has been one day" (Job 14:4–5)? And because the stains of birth are put away through the sacrament of baptism, infants too are baptized: "Unless someone is born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven" (John 3:5).

Origen preached this at Caesarea. The homily survives in Jerome's Latin, and a Greek fragment keeps the key line: "for this reason the little children are baptized too." He treats the practice as settled and asks only what it means.

Origen of Alexandria c. 185–c. 254 ADCommentary on Romans 5.9

For this reason the Church received from the apostles the tradition of giving baptism even to infants. Those to whom the secrets of the divine mysteries were entrusted knew that in everyone there are inborn stains of sin, which had to be washed away through water and the Spirit.

The earliest claim that infant baptism comes from the apostles. It survives in Rufinus's Latin (about 405), so the exact wording is Rufinus's, but it agrees with Origen's Luke homily.

Cyprian of Carthage c. 200–258 ADLetter 64, to Fidus 64.2

As for infants: you said they should not be baptized within the second or third day after birth, and that the law of the old circumcision should be kept in mind, so you thought a newborn should not be baptized and sanctified before the eighth day. Our council saw it very differently. No one agreed with what you thought should be done. Instead we all judged that the mercy and grace of God must be denied to no one who is born.

Cyprian writes for a council of 66 North African bishops. The only question was how soon: Bishop Fidus wanted to wait until the eighth day, like circumcision. No one asked whether infants should be baptized at all.

Gregory of Nazianzus c. 329/330–390 ADOration 40, On Holy Baptism 40.28

"Very well," someone says, "for those who ask for baptism. But what about those who are still infants, aware neither of the loss nor of the grace? Shall we baptize them too?" Certainly, if any danger presses. It is better to be sanctified without knowing it than to depart unsealed and uninitiated. ... For the others, my advice is to wait until about three years old, a little before or after, when they can hear something of the mystery and answer, even if they do not fully understand it, and are being shaped by it. Then sanctify them, souls and bodies, with the great mystery of initiation.

Gregory's own counsel: baptize at once in danger; otherwise wait only until about three, not until adulthood. The omitted lines compare circumcision on the eighth day.

Augustine of Hippo 354–430 ADLiteral Commentary on Genesis 10.23.39

Yet the custom of Mother Church in baptizing infants is by no means to be scorned, nor counted needless in any way, nor would it be believed at all unless it were an apostolic tradition. That little age, too, carries great weight of witness: it was the first to be counted worthy to shed its blood for Christ.

Augustine is unsure where the soul comes from, but he treats infant baptism as fixed: so fixed that it must come from the apostles. The last line refers to the infants killed by Herod (Matthew 2:16).

Julian of Eclanum and the Pelagian bishops c. 386–c. 455 ADLetter quoted in Augustine, Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.2

They say that baptism is necessary for every age, so that this creature may be adopted among the sons of God; not because it draws anything from its parents that must be washed away in the bath of rebirth.

The Pelagians denied that infants inherit sin, yet they still baptized infants, for adoption as God's children rather than for forgiveness. Augustine quotes their own letter. Elsewhere he gives their exact words: "We confess that baptism is necessary for every age" (2.11).

Schleitheim Confession (Swiss Anabaptists)Schleitheim Confession Article 1

This excludes all infant baptism, the highest and chief abomination of the pope.

The first church text in this timeline to reject infant baptism. Mennonite and Amish churches descend from this movement.